Strikes Belong In Baseball
Every school year, a school district somewhere goes on strike. While the reasons and justifications may differ, the underlying cause is always the same: more money and more benefits.
Please understand, I believe that teachers are underpaid and overworked. I will start my teaching career in 2006, and as a new Idaho teacher, I will earn $27,500. In a year. Really. I haven't earned $27,500 a year since the mid 1980s. The way that educators are treated by many state legislatures and school districts is borderline abuse. But a strike?
No one currently studying to be a teacher believes that they are entering a profession that pays well. No one believes the old axiom about teachers working 'bankers hours.' So why do veteran teachers support and participate in strikes - often illegal - for more pay and better benefits? I have never taught. I have yet to deal with persnickety administrators and angry parents. I haven't graded papers through a movie night at home with my wife. These teachers have. They are tired and angry, and I understand. But a strike?
Over the years, when I grew weary of an employer, or could not get the pay package I thought fair, I simply walked away and found another place to work, sometimes in the same field, sometimes not. But some teachers, through their unions, have decided to bring their school districts to its knees rather than shop their services elsewhere.
Being a teacher isn't like being a pipefitter or iron-worker. When employees at Ford's assembly plants go on strike, the production of cars and trucks are simply delayed. But a school year is finite, and lost days cannot be pushed into the next school year. Knowledge is halted, and children are harmed.
Some call teaching a 'calling.' The priesthood is a calling is well. This term denotes an acknowledgement that these occupations are difficult and harsh, but are for the betterment of others. Does teaching then stop becoming a 'calling' when we've taught a few years and become worn and weary? No. It remains a calling especially when we've become worn and weary. By doing our best, by being the best teachers we can be, we make it difficult for school districts to restrict our income and benefits. Regardless of the fairness to ourselves, the needs of the young ones come first. That is what callings are all about.
Please understand, I believe that teachers are underpaid and overworked. I will start my teaching career in 2006, and as a new Idaho teacher, I will earn $27,500. In a year. Really. I haven't earned $27,500 a year since the mid 1980s. The way that educators are treated by many state legislatures and school districts is borderline abuse. But a strike?
No one currently studying to be a teacher believes that they are entering a profession that pays well. No one believes the old axiom about teachers working 'bankers hours.' So why do veteran teachers support and participate in strikes - often illegal - for more pay and better benefits? I have never taught. I have yet to deal with persnickety administrators and angry parents. I haven't graded papers through a movie night at home with my wife. These teachers have. They are tired and angry, and I understand. But a strike?
Over the years, when I grew weary of an employer, or could not get the pay package I thought fair, I simply walked away and found another place to work, sometimes in the same field, sometimes not. But some teachers, through their unions, have decided to bring their school districts to its knees rather than shop their services elsewhere.
Being a teacher isn't like being a pipefitter or iron-worker. When employees at Ford's assembly plants go on strike, the production of cars and trucks are simply delayed. But a school year is finite, and lost days cannot be pushed into the next school year. Knowledge is halted, and children are harmed.
Some call teaching a 'calling.' The priesthood is a calling is well. This term denotes an acknowledgement that these occupations are difficult and harsh, but are for the betterment of others. Does teaching then stop becoming a 'calling' when we've taught a few years and become worn and weary? No. It remains a calling especially when we've become worn and weary. By doing our best, by being the best teachers we can be, we make it difficult for school districts to restrict our income and benefits. Regardless of the fairness to ourselves, the needs of the young ones come first. That is what callings are all about.
